Placing to raise £1.25 million

RNS Number : 6970V

Kennedy Ventures PLC

01 February 2017

 

1 February 2017

Kennedy Ventures plc

Placing to raise £1.25 million

Kennedy Ventures plc ("Kennedy Ventures" or "the Company"), the AIM quoted investment company, who through its stake in African Tantalum (Pty) Limited ("Aftan") has an interest in the Tantalite Valley Mine ("TVM") in Namibia, is pleased to announce that it has raised £1.25 million before expenses through a placing of 13,888,889 new ordinary shares of 1p each ("Ordinary Shares") at a price of 9p each (the "Placing").

Highlights:

·     Placing to raise gross proceeds of £1.25 million through the issue of 13,888,889 Ordinary Shares at a placing price of 9p each;

·   Net proceeds of the Placing will be used by Aftan, Kennedy Ventures' investee company, to implement the plant enhancements recently identified by Aftan with guidance from the Company's new CEO Larry Johnson, as previously announced. The funds will enable the acceleration of these initiatives and ensure the improved utilisation rates, recoveries and production levels are achieved. The funds will also be used to:

o  Accelerate ongoing lithium studies that, if expected results are achieved, will open up the Lepidolite orebody and expedite work relating to other potentially value accretive by-products at TVM; and

o  Provide general working capital:

§ Additional working capital will enable Aftan to ensure optimal end product performance within the market, through the continual facilitation of a global negotiation process associated with generating competitive tension amongst major purchasers;

§ Greater working capital will allow Aftan to implement industry bench marking initiatives to ensure optimum pricing and cost efficiency across its entire operation.

·   The Board believes the Placing will deliver added long term value to Aftan, and ultimately Kennedy, through enabling the improvements recently identified by Aftan with guidance from CEO Larry Johnson. Larry Johnson has unrivalled experience in the global tantalum sector and is laying the foundations for maximum attraction and extraction of value by Aftan from the TVM. 

·   Production will continue throughout the implementation of the above process. Aftan intends to progressively increase the levels of blending of newly mined ore stockpiles with older ore stockpiles for optimization of material through the plant.

Larry F. Johnson, CEO of Kennedy Ventures said:

"TVM represents one of the best quality tantalite mines I have seen during my long career in the industry. The upgrade and additional enhancements to the plant are designed to deliver efficiencies that will generate long-term cash flow benefits to Aftan and ultimately to the Company. Furthermore, through discussions with potential purchasers of our product, we are helping Aftan to ensure that it is in a position of strength for future years with respect to receiving the optimal price for TVM's high quality product.  

Lithium remains a key focus for Aftan and Aftan is continuing with its work to support ongoing resource estimation studies, including trench sampling and metallurgical studies at TVM. These are expected to result in a maiden lithium resource estimate during Q2 of this year. In order to further increase the commercial prospects at TVM, Aftan is studying the technical and commercial potential for the recovery and sale of by-product minerals (e.g. mica and feldspar) that can be extracted alongside lithium. Aftan will consider whether it is economic to process these minerals, to augment its revenues and contribute to the continued growth of operations.   

I expect 2017 to be a transformational year for Aftan as the optimisation at TVM completes, Aftan further explores the licence area and Kennedy assesses new opportunities such as investing in new purchasing and supply chains for tantalite and other speciality minerals.

On behalf of the senior management and Board I would like to thank all existing and new shareholders for their continued support."

Placing summary

The Placing will raise, in aggregate, £1.25 million (before expenses) through a placing of 13,888,889 new Ordinary Shares (the "Placing Shares") at a price of 9p per share. The Placing Shares will be issued under the existing authorities as approved at the Company's last Annual General Meeting. Completion of the Placing is conditional only on admission of the Placing Shares to trading on the AIM Market of the London Stock Exchange ("AIM").

Following admission, the Placing Shares will rank pari passu in all respects with the Company's existing Ordinary Shares and will represent approximately 7.3% of the Company's enlarged issued share capital.

Application has been made for the 13,888,889 Placing Shares to be admitted to trading on the AIM and it is expected that admission will take place and trading in the Placing Shares will commence from 8:00am on 9 February 2017 ("Admission"). 

Total voting rights

Following Admission, the Company's issued share capital will consist of 188,461,538 Ordinary Shares, with each Ordinary Share carrying the right to one vote. The Company does not hold any Ordinary Shares in treasury. This figure of 188,461,538 Ordinary Shares may therefore be used by shareholders in the Company as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change in their interest in, the share capital of the Company under the FCA's Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules.

The information contained within this announcement is deemed to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulations (EU) No. 596/2014. Upon the publication of this announcement, this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain.

For further information on the Company, visit: www.kvplc.com:

Kennedy Ventures plc
Larry Johnson (CEO), c/o Camarco	Tel: [phone]
Grant Thornton UK LLP (Nominated Adviser) Colin Aaronson Richard Tonthat Daniel Bush	Tel: [phone]
Shore Capital (Broker) Mark Percy / Toby Gibbs (corporate finance) Jerry Keen (corporate broking)	Tel: [phone]
Camarco (PR) Gordon Poole / Billy Clegg	Tel: [phone]

 

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